


Happy Birthday, Kiddo.

by corvobiancos



Series: TLOU Oneshots [3]
Category: The Last of Us
Genre: F/M, Gen, well joel's there for like 2 sentences
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-10
Updated: 2020-07-10
Packaged: 2021-03-04 19:33:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,142
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25191727
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/corvobiancos/pseuds/corvobiancos
Summary: Tess tries to get Ellie to listen to "real music instead of Joel's folksy country stuff", according to Tess. In the process, Ellie learns that Tess has some...eclectic taste in music.
Relationships: Joel/Tess (The Last of Us)
Series: TLOU Oneshots [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1796053
Comments: 2
Kudos: 22





	Happy Birthday, Kiddo.

**Author's Note:**

> Me? Writing more fluffy found family stuff? ABSOLUTELY. This doesn't really have much of a plot either because if I tried giving it a meaningful plot it would have taken me a year to finish it, so enjoy!

**JACKSON, 2034.**

Tess slowly peered her head through the door to Ellie's shed, knocking a few times to get the latter's attention. She saw Ellie jump at the sudden noise and spin to look at the door. Tess apologized, knowing it would take some more time for Ellie to adjust to a calmer life in Jackson. "Jus' came to see what you were doing," Tess said, shutting the door and glancing around the shed. It was a little bare, but they had only been there for a few weeks. Joel's and her house wasn't decorated either.

Ellie closed her journal as Tess wandered closer. "Wasn't doing much."

She must have been feeling weird too. Tess had finally been able to relax and lower her guard a bit; be _normal_ for the first time in two decades. She wasn't so prickly before the outbreak...well not _as_ prickly. She thought twenty years would make her forget how not to be a ruthless survivor, but luckily that wasn't the case. The hard part now was making the effort not to be so distant with people anymore.

Tess motioned toward the futon near Ellie's desk, "May I?"

Ellie nodded.

"I wanted to give you something," Tess said, having a seat and reaching into her jacket pocket, "I know it's kinda old and you probably won't like the tapes I've got for it, but..." She trailed off as she revealed a powder blue Walkman and headphones. Tess saw Ellie's eyes light up a bit, and a tiny smile grace her face for a moment.

"No fucking way..." Ellie took the tape player and turned it over in her hands, “How does this thing still work?” She mused, scraping some old sticker glue off with one of her fingernails.

"Eugene was nice enough to help fix it up," Tess said, watching Ellie fiddle with the buttons, "I've got some tapes I've found over the years for it, too. Dunno if you're gonna like any of 'em, but this was the closest thing to an iPod I could find that still worked."

Ellie asked, "...What kinda music do you listen to?"

"Uh..." Tess scratched the back of her neck, "Lotta alternative stuff from the 90s. Sometimes the 80s, too."

"Wow."

Tess furrowed her brow. "Whaddya mean, _'wow?_ ' "

"I didn't know you'd be able to remember that far back."

"Ouch!" Both of them laughed, and Tess continued, "Tell you what: Joel n' I'll keep an eye out for more on patrols. Maybe there're still some tapes in some of the old neighborhoods 'round here."

Ellie nodded, and there was a bit of silence between them. After a few moments, Ellie said, "...Thanks, Tess."

"Don't mention it," Tess reached back into her pocket and pulled out her _Disintegration_ cassette —one of Tess's favorites — for Ellie to start with, "Some of the songs are kinda depressing, but I think you might like it.” Tess had found it in an old pawn shop outside the commune; one of the first of her modest little collection she had started to build during her patrols.

Ellie took the tape, loaded it into the Walkman, and rest the headphones over her head. Tess watched her for a bit as she listened, seeing Ellie's expression sink a little as she started really paying attention to some of they lyrics. Ellie said, voice raised over the music, "You weren't kidding about it being depressing."

"Like I said, I've got more in the house if you don't like that one."

The music was audible from where Tess was sitting, so it didn’t surprise her when Ellie said on a completely unrelated note: ”It's depressing as hell, but...I kinda like it."

Tess smiled, "I was _wondering_ when you'd hit the 'mopey teen' stage."

“What?" Ellie face scrunched up as she looked up toward the woman.

"Nothing," Tess shook her head and raised her voice over the music, "Said I was hoping you'd like it." Did this mean that this was the start of Ellie's moody phase? And that in a few months she’ll only have herself to blame when Ellie inevitably yelled _“YOU’RE NOT MY MOM!”_ at Tess during an argument?

Tess put that thought out of her mind, instead choosing to watch Ellie listen to the tape for a few moments. For an instant, she could swear she caught Ellie smiling. Maybe Tess could persuade her to listen to some better music than the twangy folk tape Joel had given to Ellie long ago…Well better in Tess’s opinion. The Cure _was_ depressing, but it was still far better than some old guy plucking away at a banjo.

Ellie pulled the headphones down around her neck, and Tess said, “Happy birthday, kiddo.”

The quiet hum of the music stopped when Ellie pressed the Stop button, and she said, “…So whose…” she turned the tape player over to read, “…Walk-man was it?” Her over-pronunciation made Tess chuckle.

The older woman sighed a bit. “…Was a while before I ever met Joel.” She lowered her head and picked her fingernails before finishing, “It was...my brother's before he died. We found it after we left the QZ in Phoenix.”

Ellie looked back down at the Walkman. "Wow...Are you sure you wanna do this?"

Tess nodded. "Yeah. I talked Joel into helping me build up a good stereo for the house with stuff around here."

"So..." Ellie hesitated. She turned around, taking the headphones off her neck and placing the cassette player on her desk before saying, "...How's Joel doing?"

Tess's chest sank a bit. She had gotten out of practice with the...emotional stuff. "He uh..." she started, "...I think he's still settlin' in. This 's the only place where no one wants to kill us."

"What about you?"

Tess...didn't quite know how to answer that. "Uh..." she began, drawing out a small sigh, "Kinda the same with me, I guess. 'M not used to dealing with good people." What she didn't say was that despite having been there a bit longer than them, she was _still_ sleeping with a knife under her pillow. It was a hard habit to break. "I'm _tryin'_ to work on that, though," she finished.

There was some more heavy silence, and Ellie said, "...What other tapes do you have?"

The older woman was relieved. Tess hated getting all mushy like that, so anything to change the subject was more than welcome. She smiled, "Absolutely. C'mon."

***

Tess kept her cassettes in an old plastic box in what had now become Joel's and her shared craft space. He had taken over most of it with woodworking tools he had started gathering up, while Tess was still trying to figure out what to do to fill her downtime that wasn't just sleeping and mentally preparing herself for her next patrol outside the commune.

Since she had first arrived in Jackson the previous year, Tess had found an old second-hand bookstore that used to take trade-ins of old knickknacks. There used to be a similar place down in Arizona before the world went to shit, so Tess was happy to find something a little familiar after all these years. She raided their music section, packing her backpack until it was bursting at the seams with cassette tapes and CDs of artists and albums she used to love as a teenager. There were still plenty more out there in that strip mall, and Tess was more than happy to bring Ellie out there to "shop around."

She brought the box downstairs to the dining room, heaving it onto the table in front of Ellie. "Go nuts," Tess said, sitting down beside her and kicking her feet up on the table.

"Ho-ly shit," Ellie started digging around and almost immediately had questions. "Why would you name your band _Garbage?_ "

"Careful what you say," Tess warned, "They did a Bond song."

Ellie furrowed her brow. "Wait, you mean they did a song for one of those goofy spy movies with the exploding pens and shit?"

"It used to be a _very_ prestigious honor." Okay, _maybe_ Tess was exaggerating a little, but Ellie didn't know that.

"Okay..." Ellie pulled out another tape, "Who's _Lords of Acid?_ They sound kinda cool."

Tess dove to grab that one from Ellie. "That's one a' those things you listen to behind my back until you're grown up."

"Why?"

"...'S not really somethin' I should be tellin' you to listen to. You'll see what I mean _when you steal it behind my back later._ We'll talk about it more when you're older."

"Okay..." Ellie flashed Tess a confused look, watching as she slid that particular cassette into her pocket and gestured for Ellie to keep going.

After a few more moments, Ellie's eye caught onto a CD. Tess noticed this and said, "I'll betcha there's a portable CD player lyin' around somewhere around here."

"Who's Riot?"

Tess furrowed her brow. "Riot?"

"Riot!" Ellie repeated and showed her the case, and Tess instantly recognized "RIOT!" written all over the cover with the biggest one in red.

" _Oh_ ," Tess laughed, "That's the name of the album. It’s been a _long_ time, but I think the band's name was...Paramore...?" She trailed off, remembering the old teenaged vampire movie that made the band popular back then and trying to connect the dots from there.

Ellie derailed her train of thought. ”They any good?"

Tess shrugged. "I mean, _I_ liked 'em. Dunno if that means they’re still good, though.” She knew Joel would agree with that last part. Music was one of the many things they agreed to disagree on.

They spent the next hour or so sampling music both on Ellie’s new-to-her tape player and Tess’s new-to-her stereo in the living room, and most of that was Ellie poking fun at Tess’s taste in music. Tess wasn't even offended by most of Ellie's critiques. The last time she was able to listen to music without the constant fear of being ambushed was when she was still in the Phoenix quarantine zone. She hadn't had a chance to branch out her taste in it since then...well, she had the chance when Joel had picked up a few country tapes at the second-hand store they'd found but even twenty years of an apocalypse wouldn't change Tess's mind on country music.

It was a bit of a letdown to Tess when Ellie still borrowed a couple of Joel's tapes for her pile. She was glad to see Ellie finally able to just be a teen, so she settled for simply shaking her head a bit.

Unfortunately, Ellie noticed. "What's that face for?"

"What face?"

"The face you just made."

"Nothin'," Tess shrugged.

"You shook your head."

"I dunno what you're talkin' about."

"What? You don't like country music?"

"Eh..." Tess dragged out the sound. "Not really? I just don't like twangy banjo music."

Ellie stared at Tess, incredulous. "How have you and Joel not killed each other by now?"

"Safety in numbers, I guess."

Ellie shook her head and loaded one of Joel's tapes into the Walkman. She held it out toward Tess right as Joel came through the front door, dropping his patrol gear in the foyer. Ellie called, "Joel, tell Tess she's wrong!"

Tess looked in Joel's direction as he shrugged off his jacket. He said, "What's she wrong about?"

"Music!"

Joel immediately shook his head and disappeared upstairs. "There's no way either of us are winnin' that one. Tess'll _die_ on that hill."

Ellie offered her the Walkman again. "C'mon. Just try it."

Tess groaned, "Ellie, I lived in Arizona for the first half of my life. I know what country music sounds like." Despite herself, she took the Walkman anyway and put the headphones on. She rolled her eyes and pressed play, apparently in the middle of a song. She had a "newer" nineties Walkman as a kid, but that was _years_ before even the outbreak. It was weird to be doing it again after so long.

After a few minutes of an old man singing an old folksy song and plucking at his guitar, Tess finally admitted to herself that it wasn't _that_ bad. She still wouldn't choose to listen to it, though, and she wouldn't admit out loud that she didn't mind some more folksy music. She sighed, crossing her arms while Ellie watched her with a wide grin on her lips. Tess glanced at her, and Ellie said, "So whaddya think?"

Tess pulled the headphones off and said, "I'm tellin' ya: it's _still_ boring as hell." Well, it was boring when it was someone she didn't care about singing. She liked hearing Joel hum a little tune whenever he tuned a "gee-tar" as he called it, but that was different from hearing a stranger whine about tractors and freedom on a tape.

**Author's Note:**

> Yeah, I know Ellie already had the Walkman for a while before the museum thing but I like how this works out instead. It's kinda like a joint birthday gift!


End file.
